


sins of my mother

by lightningrani



Category: Fire Emblem: Kakusei | Fire Emblem: Awakening
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Angst, Character Death, Gen, happy ending not guaranteed
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-08-09
Updated: 2015-08-08
Packaged: 2018-04-13 09:17:59
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 3
Words: 2,107
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4516374
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lightningrani/pseuds/lightningrani
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>What if Chrom wasn't the first person to find Morgan in the Ruins of Time?<br/>What if it was the Plegians?</p><p>A few different ways Robin could have met their child, some sadder than others.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Battle of Tears

**Author's Note:**

> If you're wondering who Morgan's father is, I kept it vague on purpose; I was more focusing on Morgan's relationship with his mother. (My Morgan has brown hair, but frankly, it doesn't matter)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Morgan was always a good soldier.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is the only chapter where no one dies. Yay?

He stood there, staring at me, his eyes wide.  His hair was so much like his father’s, but his eyes… his eyes were all mine.

It took little for me to connect the dots. And everything fell into place when he whispered into the silence.

“Mother?” The words escaped from his lips, broken and frail. “But, I thought… I thought you were with them.”

This was the final battle, at the Table. Chrom had sent me up ahead, because if there was one person who had the right to defeat Validar, it was his daughter.

What none of us expected was my future, decked out in Plegian robes, to be fighting by his side.

In hindsight, we should have expected this. Everyone else who had gotten married had children, children that we had found, reuniting families broken by time. But as much as we looked, we never found my child.

My son, apparently.

What future did he come from? Was he the child of the future me, the one who had turned to the dark side and let Grima rule the land? Did he believe that the world would be better ruled by darkness?

One look at his face, lost and filled with innocence, made me change my mind. No, if this child was the son of the other me, the other Robin, he would not be looking at me with the eyes of a child who had been betrayed by someone they loved.

Validar sneered. “She is not your true mother, Morgan! Listen to your grandfather. She is just an imposter. The true one is the one who has been standing my side, like a true daughter would. Do you think someone with no loyalty could be someone like your mother?”

Morgan looked between us, confused. He didn’t believe him. I wouldn’t, and he was my father.

I swallowed. “Morgan,” I called out carefully. His head whipped towards me, and I swore I could see tears in his eyes.

Naga preserve me.

“We don’t want to hurt you. I don’t want to hurt you.” I swallowed again, thinking of how to phrase it. The tactical side of me was trying to figure out how to make this useful for our side, to upset Validar’s plan. The human side of me, the side that remembers that this is my child—from some future, at least—wanted to get him off the field as soon as possible. “If you leave this battlefield, we can get this all sorted out, okay?”

“Don’t listen to that vile woman, Morgan! She lies! She—” His rant was cut off from a blast of magic from a well-used tome.

Morgan looked down at him, tears trailing down his face. I glanced at the tome, and noticed its similarities to my own. Was this the last thing he had of me, before he came to the past?

“He’s not going to stay down for very long,” I said quietly. “We need to go.”

Instead of saying anything, he turned around and ran to embrace me, hugging me as if I was the last thing he could truly believe in.

“You’re really her,” he said between sobs. “I finally found you, after all this time.”

“I know,” I said soothingly, blinking away the tears which were forming in my eyes. “I know. Everything will be all right now. I know it.”


	2. The Sacrifice

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Grima and Robin aren't the only people who could be vessels for Grima.

“Now, son, do you remember what you have to do?” Mother said strictly, as she dressed me in my ceremonial robes.

I nodded. She told me what I needed to do, to ensure the world would not end. She told me what that army was truly planning, the horrors that they would unleash onto this world.

She told me how I could prevent, and Mother never led me wrong in the past, right? Even my fuzzy memory agreed with my heart; Mother would never lead me into danger.

Mother bent down and stared me right in my eyes. “Remember, son, the most important thing is that you must finish the ceremony. No matter what happens. Can you do that?”

“Of course, Mother.”

“Good. Now, follow me.”

She left without a word. How odd. I never remembered Mother being so curt.

**

The only time I remembered being on the battlefield before this moment was the first time Mother found me, after I lost my memory. There, I fought against reanimated corpses, barely smarter than a dog.

But fighting against people, well, that was different. The screams of defiance, the screams of pain which filled the air was much different than the quiet sounds the Risen made as they returned to dust. And nothing could rival the smell of blood in the air.

Mother had disappeared into the fray, telling me to wait for her return before I started the ritual. Not many people went in my direction, but the few that did decided to go for easier targets after seeing my magic.

Sometimes I would glance into the crowd, hoping to see an edge of Mother’s robe, hoping to see any sign that she was safe. But she never appeared.

“What are you doing here, child?”

I whipped around. Behind my stood the leader of this group who was going to destroy this world, standing smugly with his blue hair and large sword.

I swallowed, and raised my hand in his direction. “Stay away from me, fiend!”

“Chrom, what’s the problem?”

I froze. “Mother?”

“Mother?” the man said, confused.

And behind him was… Mother? But no, even if she had the same hair, and the same face, and the same eyes—but her eyes were kinder, more like the ones in my memory—she was with him. And there was no way that Mother would ever side with the enemy.

But she froze, her eyes reflecting the same shock I knew was in my face. “He has his father’s hair,” she breathed.

“You mean, he’s… yours?” Chrom asked, confused. “But, Lucina should have mentioned—”

I turned to face the imposter, magic crackling at my fingertips. “Who are you, to take my mother’s face?” I yelled at her.

“Of course,” she said wearily, “she would have recruited you to her cause. She had to take my face, and now my child as well.”

I gulped. “You can’t be my mother!” Even if she looked like her, even if she sounded like her, even if she thought like her. “You’re just here to stop me from my task.”

Mother—no, the imposter’s—eyes widened. “I can’t believe she would stoop to such levels,” she spat out, venom in her voice.

“Robin, what is—”

“Guess who else is a proper vessel for Grima, Chrom?”

Silence filled the room, the sounds of the battle fading into the distance.

I met her eyes straight on. “It is a privilege to be the vessel for Grima,” I said confidently.

“You have a full life ahead of you! Son, don’t—”

“You are NOT my mother!” I yelled, cutting her off.

“Of course not, son.” And then Mother walked into the room. I relaxed. She smirked at the imposter. “Now, are you ready to begin the ritual?”

I glanced between the two women, one who had eyes made of flint, and the other who had eyes filled with tears. One of them had to be my true Mother, right? But which one?

Mother placed a hand on my shoulder. “You know what is right in your heart, Morgan. Follow it.”

I turned my back on the imposter. I ignored her wail.

Mother smiled. “Good. Now, let us begin.”

**

“Morgan?”

I opened my eyes. Why was everything so blurry? I didn’t know where I was, or how I got here. The last clear thing I could remember was the ritual. I tried to sit up, only for my body to stay on the ground. Why was I so weak?

“Mother?” I whispered.

She smiled down on me, tears in her eyes. “Yes, son?” she said quietly, as she ran her fingers through my hair.

“Why are you crying?”

“You’re dying, son.”

Oh. That would explain a lot. “Did I do good?”

Her smile was like glass. “Of course, Morgan. Of course you did.”

I smiled weakly. “I love you, Mother.”

“I know, son.”

My eyes became too heavy to stay open. I let them close, knowing that at least, I died with my mother at my side.  

I felt someone kiss my forehead. “I’m so sorry, Morgan,” Mother whispered, “that it had to end like this.”


	3. till death do us part

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Grima wasn't their last opponent at the final battle.

It seemed so simple, as battle plans go. Head up the dragon, find Grima, and kill the vessel. The world would be safe from Grima, and the war would end.

No more would the children from the future be scarred by more violence. There would be time for people to heal, for the country to rebuild itself. And then, everything would be back to normal.

They didn’t expect to be almost killed by Grima as soon as they stepped on the field. They didn’t expect Robin to be kidnapped by Grima before the battle even began. And they survived that, no one thought there could be anything harder to face than defeating the people who wanted the world to be devoured by darkness.

But no one expected this.

Grima smirked at Robin, who stared in shock at the person who stood at her side. “Who… who is that?” Robin choked out.

“Oh, I see you recognize the family resemblance,” Grima said, running her hand down his back. “What kind of mother lets their child wander the ruins all alone?”

Chrom pointed the tip of his sword at Grima, his eyes glinting with anger from the sword’s light. “You lie!”

“Oh, do I, now?” She turned to look at the child, who was becoming more and more confused every second. “What do you think, Morgan?”

“Why are there two of you, Mother?”

Robin growled, her hands crackling with magic. “What are you doing to this child?”

“Me? Oh, why would I do anything to my son?” Grima patted Morgan on his head. “Have I hurt you, son?”

“Not really…” Morgan said, averting his gaze.

“And if I did, I’m his mother, after all! I can raise my child in any way I want.”  Grima smiled again. “Now, if you would just let me finish my goal, nothing bad will happen. Right, Morgan?”

Morgan looked away, but nodded.

“Robin, we can’t let her get away with this,” Chrom whispered. “You know we can’t let Grima come back.”

“I know, Chrom!” She ran a hand through her hair. “There’s only one thing which I have to do.” She stepped towards Grima.

“Robin, don’t—”

“I don’t want innocent blood on your hands, Chrom. You’ve had enough grief in your life already.”

Grima’s smile widened. “Morgan, I believe it’s time for you to prove your strength.”

“What?! Mother!”

“Oh, there’s no need for me to defeat this imposter,” Grima continued, looking at her nails with disdain. “I know her worth. But I know this is confusing for you. It’s better for you to figure out the truth for yourself.”

“But I can’t kill you!”

“But she’s not me, son. You know you have to do it.”

He gulped, and looked in desperation at the other side, pleading with his eyes.

Robin looked at him and shook her head. There was nothing she could do. This was the path she had to take.

If he decided to run towards the other side, if he didn’t believe in Grima as much as he did, then this could be avoided. No one would have stopped him from joining the ranks, especially being the son of such a great tactician.

But Grima was a god, and gods know how to control people. He faced down Robin, hands trembling as he held the tome, the tome which always reminded him of his mother. Robin looked back at him, pain etched into her face. If she could avoid this path, she would. But Robin was willing to give up her life for a future free of Grima; if she had to kill her son to save the world, so be it. She killed her father; her soul was tarnished enough as it was.

Grima stood lazily, looking at the scene, as mother and son faced each other. She watched with glee as they raised their hands, ready to attack each other in order to survive.

When both Morgan and Robin fell to the blast of magic from the other’s hand, the screams of pain and sorrow coming from the other side were masked by the sound of her laughter.


End file.
